2003 Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States elected Ukraine’s president as chairman of the loose alliance of former Soviet republics, the first time a Russian president has not been chosen to head the CIS since its creation in 1991. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma was unanimously elected the group’s chairman after Russian President Vladimir Putin nominated him during what was billed as an informal CIS summit. The move, which Putin said was at first resisted by some of the leaders at the sparsely attended gathering in Ukraine’s capital, was clearly aimed to dispel fears of Russian domination of the alliance. “Russia has made a mistake” by always chairing the CIS since its creation, Putin said. He said rotating chairmanship was vital for boosting public trust in the CIS in member states. The appointment followed Kuchma’s proposal at the previous CIS summit to sign a free trade agreement between CIS countries. Kuchma said that the agreement should be ready for signing at the next summit.
Other important events
1861 Kansas becomes the 34th state of US.
1886 First successful gasoline-driven car is patented by Karl Benz of Karlsruhe.
1891 Liliuokalani becomes Queen of Hawaii. She was its last monarch and only reigning queen.
1916 Germans stage first Zeppelin raid on Paris in World War I.
1922 Union of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is dissolved.
1926 Violette Anderson becomes the first African American woman to practice law before the US Supreme Court.
1930 Spanish dictator General Primo de Rivera resign.
1942 Ecuador and Peru sign Rio de Janeiro protocol, ending their war over a large swath of Amazon jungle.
1944 The US Navy battleship ‘USS Missouri’ is launched.
1959 Danish passenger ship Hans Hedtoft, sailing along Greenland’s coast, hits an iceberg and sinks, killing 95 people.
1986 Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as president of Uganda.
1991 French Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement resigns over Gulf War policies.
1993 French Marines enter Zaire’s capital. Dozens of civilians, soldiers and foreigners die in the bloodshed.
1994 Naeb Al Maaytah, Jordanian diplomat in Beirut, is shot dead.
1996 La Fenice, the 204-year-old opera house, burns down in Venice, Italy.
1997 Three people are killed and six injured as fire engulf the upper floors of a 25-storey Express Towers in Mumbai.
2002 The new national flag of Afghanistan is raised in Kabul for the first time.
2005 The first direct flights between bitter rivals China and Taiwan start after 55 years.
2006 Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah takes the oath of office as the new emir of Kuwait.
2008 Kenyan opposition lawmaker Mugabe Werein is gunned down in Nairobi.
2009 The Illinois Senate removes Governor Rod R. Blagojevich from office, after finds him guilty.
2012 Sir Bani Yas Logistics Port is inaugurated at Western Region of Abu Dhabi.
2013 A domestic flight of SCAT airline crashes while approaching to Almaty airport, Kazakhstan, killing 20 all 20 people on board.
2015 Malaysia formally declares the passengers and crew of missing flight MH370 to be presumed dead.
2016 A suicide bombing and gun attack on worshippers killed at least four people in eastern Saudi Arabia.
2017 Five people reported dead in shooting at mosque in Quebec City, Canada.
